Over the weekend at the Directors Guild Canada event showcasing the Star Trek: Discovery art department, TrekMovie had a chance to speak with production designer Tamara Deverell about what she and her team have been up to for the second season.

What would you say was the biggest challenge for you and your team going into the second season?

Figuring out what we were going to build. We probably drew up seven sets that never happened. There was a lot of design work on crazy, great stuff that we couldn’t use. You can only afford to build so much and have time to build so much and what does the writing room need. The biggest challenge for me is getting that question answered. What do the writers need to tell the stories in season two?

One of the new sets for season two is Pike’s ready room, which is quite different than Lorca’s. What do the differing designs say about the two characters?

Well, Lorca was character-less in a way. I didn’t want to give him any character, except for the bowl of Chinese fortune cookies. He really only had one table in his room, and he was devoid of any warmth or humanity, and we know what happened with Lorca. So, that all made sense in the end.

So, when we decided we were going to do the ready room for Captain Pike I, of course, watched “The Cage” and went back to TOS and looked a lot at the character. We talked a lot to the writers as well about what his backstory is, what his history was, where he is from in Mojave, what he collected and what he brought with him. He brought stuff. We had stuff from New Mexico, from Mojave, from Arizona and we brought all of that in. He had a table that he brought in that was his table from childhood that had been hit by lightning. So, there was a whole backstory and richness and the other aspect was that he was a warm character who wanted to welcome people. He didn’t want a cold space. He wanted people to come in, so we had a sitting area. We made a bigger space and place where you could have a meeting. So, it wasn’t just his ready room. It is a place that you can imagine him falling asleep. Having some Cheese-Its and falling asleep watching his iPad. We really wanted that comfortable vibe. He was a cowboy, so we put in Remington sculpture, Navajo artwork and pottery. We brought in all these things that were Pike, his welcoming warm, cozy world.

Pike’s ready room

We saw Spock’s quarters on the Enterprise. What were some of the opportunities or pitfalls for designing a set for what many consider a sacred ship?

Doing Spock’s room, we used the existing space. We brought in a lot of what he had in his room, the Vulcan bells, the tiered chess game, the mesh walls, the orange color. We really tried to draw as much of those character pieces in as we could. But given that this is episodic TV, we had to pick a space and redress it and do it. It wasn’t like what I would do fresh if we had the time. It wasn’t the money, it was just the time to build the proper Spock’s quarters. I think I would have gone more with canon and what we saw on TOS. I just wish I got to design the Enterprise bridge. If I were to do something like the Enterprise bridge, I would draw a lot from the original.

Spock’s quarters

What kind of inspiration did you draw from for the world-building aspect of New Eden and how did you achieve the separation of how a viewer interprets post-WWIII New Eden vs. current-day Earth?

As New Eden was an untouched planet except for this church, we thought a lot of how to make this work, so there was a lot of going back to pioneer days. We drew that fine line. The church was brought and transplanted and what is in the church is technologically advanced, but not too far. They were growing their own food, living like pioneers. It was really drawing from that and we found a church as a location outside of Toronto that was perfect. We built the basement as a set, which was old-school for me, putting paint and plaster in, and old wood. It was really nice of days and months of these shiny surfaces and Starfleet ships to an old basement in a church and stained glass windows.

We had a lot of back and forth with the writers on those windows. The story evolved and we had to do reshoots and redesigns on the windows because the windows tell the story. So, we had a lot of fun with that. It was nice to just get away from the spaceship of it all. We did these tents, which we wanted to shoot outside but it was May in Ontario and you couldn’t count on the weather. So, we shot the scenes with the dinner in the tents, which were all homemade-looking. It was fun.

Church basement in “New Eden”

What can you say about the approach and influences for the Section 31 ship?

Of course, I went straight to look and see what other sets there had been in past franchise history for Section 31 and there was really nothing. Just some guys in some suits and that’s it. I was like okay, there is nothing I have to draw from – which is great as a designer as it is a free-for-all. What is Section 31? It is dark, it’s mysterious, it’s covert, it’s a little bit scary. It’s nookish. In conversation with the writers, we added little nooks and little rooms, just nooks and crannies. I also looked at a lot of film noir and the lighting and the harshness and the black-and-whiteness of it. That made it very glossy surfaces and a lot of interactive light and very low color. It’s grey on grey and black. So, it’s really about the form of the space and how it functioned for the various action pieces, some of which you have seen and some of which you will see.

And the bridge of the ship started as the USS Shenzhou?

Yeah. We had the Shenzhou which was sharp and angular, and we were going to take that set down and I thought “wait a minute, it has got a certain language that relates to Section 31.” And remember the Shenzhou bridge was on the bottom of the ship, so we had this two-story set with this whole area down below and I thought let’s just go down and make stairs and do this interesting two-level. And everyone thought it was fantastic and so that’s what we did. We also changed the viewscreen, but it is still the same language of a Federation starship, so I thought we could get away with that.

Did the USS Vengeance design from Star Trek Into Darkness have any influence on the Section 31 ship?

I am sure I looked at it, I remember kind of looking at it. Designers don’t want to copy, but we were drawing a lot from the Star Trek movies, because of [Alex] Kurtzman [who was co-writer and producer on J.J. Abrams first two Star Trek films] and just because they look so good. So, I probably was looking at them, but specifically no I would have to say it was more of keeping what we had to work with, which was the Shenzhou and developing this new ship.

Are there any other areas of Section 31 that we are going to see?

Yeah, probably. Section 31 is a big story point in season two. So, keep watching.

Section 31 ship

The Klingons have gone through a lot of changes for season two in terms of tone and makeup. How has this flowed into your approach for the new sets, like L’Rell’s garden?

Just doing a Klingon house was a new thing. I don’t think Star Trek has gone there. They have done throne rooms and burning council chambers and that sort of thing. So doing her house, we start thinking about how she is female, where can we put this? We redressed an old set. We do a lot of that to save time and money. We were always cave-like and I decided let’s give her a courtyard and garden. Klingons need to eat. They have gardens. It is not just a dead rock planet, which I think is always the go-to for sci-fi, just dead rocks. So we have a garden with a lot of interesting architecture.

L’Rell’s garden

With the future of the spore drive in question, does that mean we will finally see the actual warp drive engine room for the USS Discovery this season?

That’s the warp core. The warp core is there. We did do a rebuild of part of the engineering room, just in terms of we opened it up and had a bit of a dark corner we added on. And we did a dilithium processor that had previously been built and used for a tiny little scene in season one and we brought that out and built it for the engineering space, just to have it there, because they would still be able to access that technology. Whether they do or not, you will have to see.

Stamets lab has added some elements like the room next to the reaction chamber

We saw some of Kaminar in Short Treks but Doug Jones has said we will be going back. Were those sets use for both the Short Treks episode and the full Discovery episode, and are there more to see?

I think you saw a lot of them in the Short Treks. I don’t think you will see more, but you will see them again. You may see more in the short. We were disappointed because we put our heart and soul into those huts. Just film these huts! You have kind of seen it. Maybe there is a little bit more, but not much. That’s something to look for.

We also saw some more of Kaminar in his quarters.

That was a fun set to do, Saru’s quarters. We found out in Short Treks that he brought seeds and we wanted to play that up and give him something different.

Kaminar from Short Treks

There seem to be touches of more color this season, is this part of the lighter tone of the show and can we expect to more of the color palette evolve in the direction of the original Star Trek going forward?

Possibly. Yes. Visually we get bored. So we are going to new planets, which we are doing and expanding the worlds and TOS-like areas, for sure.

[MINOR SPOILERS BELOW]

Alex Kurtzman has already revealed we will be visiting Talos IV in the second season. Without giving away any spoilers, is there anything you can say about this challenge from a production design standpoint?

When I was a kid and I watched [Star Trek:] The Original Series I had nightmares and was so freaked out about the Talosians with the big pulsing heads that when it came up that we might go there, I have to say I relived that moment of my childhood. Oh my god, I am working on Star Trek and I might – she says without giving anything away – I might have to do Talos and the Talosians. As a little kid, I was scared to death of these things. A lot of stuff I design in my head when I sleep at night, because there’s no time. So, there were a lot of weird dreams when that came up. Weird dreams of big heads and pulsing veins. [laughs]

Talosians from TOS “The Cage” gave Deverell nightmares as a child

Star Trek: Discovery is available exclusively in the USA on CBS All Access. It airs in Canada on Space and streams on CraveTV. It is available on Netflix everywhere else.

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RonSalon

I love #StarTrekDiscovery. I really do. Have I loved everything? No, but that doesn’t mean I can’t love it anyway.

February 11, 2019 6:18 pm

Ben Adams

So if the Shenzhou had to be evacuated, I guess we have to assume that Saru went back to his cabin first and gathered more seeds.

February 11, 2019 6:52 pm

Corinthian7

He probably had some in his San Francisco pad.

February 12, 2019 12:18 am

Hauke Fischer

The evacuation of the Shenzou was always pretty orderly in my headcanon. Most of the Klingons had left, the Sarcophagus wss disabled, the warp core wasn’t about to blow up, they went in and got Giorgio’s telescope ect.

February 12, 2019 12:57 am

Denny C

Spock’s quarters, always a modest space, are as large as engineering now.

February 11, 2019 7:18 pm

kmart

It’s hard for me to even take seriously the notion that this is supposed to relate to TOS TV or features in the slightest when you try to reconcile these luxury digs with the quarters seen in the 60s through 1991. The sheer wasted space is just staggering and at odds with any presentation of these vessels being places where space is at a premium. Just incongruous to me – not on the absurd scale and functionless form of the JJ brewery (where they didn’t even mask off the contemporary floor, which could have been done with garbage liner from Costco!), but indicating a similar lack of cluelessness.

February 11, 2019 7:36 pm

Timothy Kieper

Good Point ! Someone had an idea for a space show, then thought, “Hey let’s call it Start Trek” !
Add some Tribbles and Trek Speak and we are done !

Keep in mind that the crew complement doubles between this time and TOS. I can see there being lots of extra room at the moment, but maybe the ship is refitted and quarters are more cramped when the complement goes from 203 to 430-something.

February 12, 2019 7:29 am

Corinthian7

Good point Dan.

February 12, 2019 4:12 pm

Dr. Image

Exactly. How can these designers logically create things that defy all engineering sense? Sadly, Sternbach, Drexler, and Okuda were not invited to the party.

February 12, 2019 8:54 am

A34

Everything is bigger now. It’s not that hard to understand. Plus it just looks better on screen.

February 12, 2019 9:46 am

Michael Hall

Well, sheesh — this complaint, while legitimate in and of itself, seems pretty selective to me, given that David Gerrold was writing about all that wasted space on the Enterprise forty years ago, not to mention all those luxury accommodations on the ships of the Berman era, or the completely egregious set design of the TNG-influenced Orville. Unless you’re Stanley Kubrick the exigencies of production will always take precedent over what’s realistic, strictly speaking, which is why The Expanse only does a somewhat better job in this regard. At least Trek has the excuse that this is an optimistic take on the future, where the society has the wealth and resources to prioritize comfort over what’s strictly practical or efficient.

February 12, 2019 10:47 am

kmart

I’ve always taken the Gerrold criticism as valid, with the caveat that some sections could be exempt due to strange conditions — that’s why I always gave TOS engineering a pass while he used it as a prime example. But TOS already had more space in their quarters than was the contemporary norm — GR said everybody on the ship should have his own quarters, not a bunkmate situation, which so far as I know remained in place till TUC — it just wasn’t a suite at the Waldorf until TNG came along, and then only for higher-ups.

As to the production issue … visually, having to shoot around a foreground object because you can’t get far enough back to shoot a full wide shot gives a space more credibility as real, not less. That’s why series and films that shoot in real locations instead of on stage are imbued with cred that is practically impossible to obtain when you’re on a set, unless you build that set to include all those obstacles that obscure a clear view, just like they do in life.

It’s funny though, the worst offender in terms of wasted space (unrealized) is one by my design idol (as in, nearly up there with Saarinen and Calatrava and the Eames) Ken Adam. He had the Enterprise saucer as something like an empty shell filled with hamster habitrail tubes linking various components, at least if the art we’ve seen for PLANET OF THE TITANS is correctly interpretted. I think it was supposed to look like the European airport in AIRPORT 79 THE CONCORDE, and you can get some idea of how it might have been realized (on a smaller scale) by looking at the interior of Drax’s station in MOONRAKER, which he worked on almost directly after leaving STAR TREK. Director Kaufman wanted to do some kind of elaborate reveal that let Kirk look DOWN from the Enterprise bridge through the various decks to show the scale of the thing, which sounds like a very cool sci-fi kind of thing to do, but also sounds immensely stupid and impractical for a vessel with airtight compartments that presumably isn’t filled with transparent aluminum (since it hadn’t been thought up yet.)

February 13, 2019 5:44 am

ML31

” it just wasn’t a suite at the Waldorf until TNG came along, and then only for higher-ups. ”

This made me think about another complaint I had about TNG. The fact that there seem to be zero crewmen on board. EVERYONE is an officer. Even their “lower decks” show was about… Officers. The only exception was Chief O’Brian. But he even spoke about going to the Academy when he was on DS9. So why wasn’t he an officer? Are Chiefs considered an officer class in the future? On TOS, you couldn’t swing a stick without hitting some jumpsuited crewman. How can the Enterprise operate without non-officers? It’s like having an office filled with only managers. I guess in the future everyone is an officer thus rendering the achievement of being one worthless.

Oh, and it’s also a good reminder that the first time me and my friends saw the Enterprise D we started calling it the USS Hilton because it looked more like a hotel than a star ship.

February 13, 2019 8:16 am

Ben Adams

Hold up. She states that she wanted to more closely replicate the original quarters but that the budget didn’t allow it – they had to use already standing sets.

The thing that makes me facepalm is that there are two workable standing TOS sets out in the world currently. I realize CBS doesn’t want to reward fan film makers, but it seems that it should be a simple matter to arrange shooting on one of those sets.

And Enterprise managed to replicate the TOS captain’s quarters with no problem….

February 12, 2019 3:44 pm

Tiger2

That’s not realistic at all. First off those sets are hundreds of miles away from each other. They are not going to spend that kind of money just for Burnham to stand in a room. Secondly they are based on the old TV show design and wouldn’t fit into the more modern look Discovery is going for. So it was never feasible.

February 12, 2019 4:20 pm

Michael Hall

She didn’t state that she wanted to “replicate” the set, just that she would have preferred that it more closely resemble the original. Shooting on a duplicate of such am austere, simple space in 2019 really wouldn’t have been an option.

February 12, 2019 4:48 pm

Vulcan Soul

The characterization of Lorca as “character-less” reveals that they really did not think of him as anything more than a sub-human, mustache-twirling, one-dimensional cartoon of a bad guy. Which was a big part of what undermined the impact of season 1 as Star Trek, science fiction series and serious drama in general. The best antagonist is one with a credible and complex human character whose motivations you can understand or would even share if you were in his situation, and after having Lorca fully jump the shark in the mirror-verse, they completely failed on that! And now it seems there was no desire for that from the get-go. That actually says more about their own view of and understanding of humanity, than about Lorca.

February 11, 2019 8:10 pm

Legate Damar

She’s talking about set design, not writing. It makes sense that he wouldn’t want to put to much of himself into his ready room, because he wouldn’t want to give anything away. Besides, his weapon room really showed more of Lorca’s character than his ready room did.

February 11, 2019 8:44 pm

MattR

He also maybe didn’t have anything in this universe that he connected to.

February 11, 2019 9:00 pm

Vulcan Soul

The question she answered was how the set design reflected on Lorca’s character, in contrast to Pike’s.

February 11, 2019 9:24 pm

Ixley

Honestly, I think you’re investing way too much into one tiny response.

I agree that Lorca’s characterization at the last minute was highly disappointing (mustache-twirling indeed), but seriously dude… go easy. She’s just answering an interview question about the way in which she interpreted Lorca’s character. She’s not a writer.

February 12, 2019 3:23 am

Michael Hall

Agreed. She’s a set designer, not a writer, and that was her particular take on the character, nothing more. (Though I also agree with your assessment of where that character wound up.)

February 12, 2019 10:53 am

GarySeven

I spoke with Tamara for awhile at the reception after the event and I can tell you she is a true TOS fan. It was quite clear that she values the original series in both its aesthetics and its positive optimistic spirit. She also was very genuine and down to earth and friendly. A real class act. And it was gratifying and a relief to see her respect for the original. I only wish the writers had more regard for the positive vision of TOS, although it is starting to improve. In my view, Harberts and Berg & company didn’t really understand TOS and what they were doing. But Tamara Deverell knows her stuff.

That’s definitely apparent in this interview. I love the enthusiasm she brings when “The Cage” and the Talosians come up. Love it!

February 12, 2019 7:31 am

Luke Montgomery

Her work is great. Really glad she’s giving it her all. Kinda bummed we won’t be seeing the Enterprise bridge… here’s to hoping we see a spin off set on her coming up. The adventures of Pike, Spock and Number One!

February 11, 2019 11:25 pm

Denny C

“I just wish I got to design the Enterprise bridge. If I were to do something like the Enterprise bridge, I would draw a lot from the original.”

I guess that confirms that we won’t be boarding the Enterprise in any significant way and I suspect that she may have gone in a different direction with Discovery’s overall aesthetic.

February 12, 2019 6:21 am

Cmd.Bremmon

Does anyone miss when NASA would talk about how much the TOS bridge made sense because the Captain could look around and talk to all his senior officers and see their displays for quick decision making? I don’t know which bridge is less functional now, TNG where the Captain is stuck looking at the viewscreen or these massive bridges (now multi level) where the Captain can spin around to yell at his crew that maybe they can hear him. Bet everyone on the bridge is sure glad they can see their computer cores because in combat or when facing some astronomical anomaly it’s nice to know you can see your computer hard drive instead of having it deep inside the primary hull with some IT guys taking care of it.

February 12, 2019 7:26 am

dayxday

I do!

February 12, 2019 9:56 am

Ant

The US Navy actually did a study on the effectiveness of the design of the Enterprise bridge, and found it plausible. If you look up images of the USS Independence LCS-2 bridge, it’s got a captains chair in the center flanked by two sitting stations in front of it… just like the Enterprise. Wish I could post the picture, but its the second one in google images when you search. Very cool.

Depending on when the work was done, they might have based that on the STARSHIP TROOPERS bridge (or flight deck) as well.

February 14, 2019 4:54 am

kmart

I was rewatching TOS’s 2nd pilot and CORBOMITE recently and think now we have an idea of why Spock was doing so much shouting on the bridge. He hadn’t gotten used to working in a more intimate space yet, and was yelling like he was on the bridge of a Discovery era starship! How’s that for bass-ackwards retconning of a stupid new visual conceit?

Honestly, the only signficant change I might make to the TOS bridge would be to add a second ring of mini-stations around part of the lower level that also face outward. Would give you more visual density to shoot through when you had the camera low, especially on a circular camera move, and when you went high and shot downward, you’d have a more complex and engaging operations room. Oddly enough, since I just mentioned David Gerrold in my last post, I think this idea solidified for me when first reading his YESTERDAY’S CHILDREN, which features a starship bridge that is clearly a coffee-stained doublestuffed kludge of the Enterprise bridge … the second ring of stations described there would probably make maneuvering a nightmare and it would be tough for TV directors to do staging too, but I think a happy medium between that and TOS would be a nice way to update things, personally. Just so long as we don’t keep getting those glass displays with reflections that impair vision functionality, or the dread spotlights aiming at workers from the stations they are supposed to be studying, which are among the most godawful stupid things in the horrid interior ship designs of the Abramsverse.

February 13, 2019 5:53 am

Tiger2

“I was rewatching TOS’s 2nd pilot and CORBOMITE recently and think now we have an idea of why Spock was doing so much shouting on the bridge. He hadn’t gotten used to working in a more intimate space yet, and was yelling like he was on the bridge of a Discovery era starship! How’s that for bass-ackwards retconning of a stupid new visual conceit?”

I have to admit, I lol! ;D

February 13, 2019 11:49 pm

ML31

“If I were to do something like the Enterprise bridge, I would draw a lot from the original.”

I would think that would be a given. But looking at Discovery I would have guessed not.

February 12, 2019 8:02 am

A34

I can’t wait to see the Enterprise bridge. It’s finally going to look good.

Did you read what she said? she’s the lead production designer, and she’s saying they did not build the Enterprise bridge for season 2 (which is not a surprise, the producers have said the Enterprise doesn’t really feature much, the show is named Discovery after all). So now you’re just being a troll. Knock it off.

February 12, 2019 9:56 am

Tiger2

A34 has been trolling since he’s been here. He’s been more subtle about it but he’s clearly trolling in a lot of his posts.

February 12, 2019 4:21 pm

A34

Dude, they also said Spock would never be on the show.

February 16, 2019 9:19 pm

Silvereyes

If there’s one thing that stands out from the TOS look and feel, it’s that there was so much color. The lighting of the sets, the uniforms, everything was colourful. It’s like Smarties and Light Bright colourful. Sure it was the ’60s and the budget was low, but still there has to be some kind of callback to the original look of the show. There just isn’t. The sets are beautiful, but not knowing it was a Star Trek show you could think it was any other SF show. And the sets are just too dark…

That is exactly what I’m talking about. It has a modern updated feel, yet there is no mistaking this is TOS. Thank you dayxday! By the way this is 1000% better than any set I have seen of the Enterprise bridge, all iterations included.

February 12, 2019 12:50 pm

dayxday

I absolutely agree! Why is this so hard?

February 12, 2019 5:40 pm

ML31

Yeah, I’ve seen that film before. And if the designers of season 1 Discovery wanted to they very much could have updated the show to be modern but still evoke the proper feel of the era is is supposed to be in. Doing what they did was a tremendous mistake. I repeat, if they didn’t want their show to look like Trek 10 years before TOS then they should have just made their show a reboot and leave it at that.

February 13, 2019 8:23 am

Danpaine

Agree 100%.

February 13, 2019 7:00 am

Michael Hall

I must say, incidentally, that my inner 14 year-old reports being horribly disappointed that we apparently won’t be getting DSC’s take on the Enterprise bridge. I suppose it was never reasonable to assume that we would see it if there wasn’t a really pressing need to do so storywise, given the time and expense. But the 14 year-old doesn’t want to hear about the reasons why not, and is throwing a tantrum as we speak.

February 12, 2019 4:44 pm

Tiger2

Honestly its probably for the best. I think in reality they knew if they showed a bridge that didn’t meet everyone’s expectations it was going to cause more harm then good so why bother? I wanted to see it as much as everyone but anything outside of an exact replica would’ve been blasphemy for some. I mean even with the minor changes to the exterior of the ship has upset a lot of people (although I think most accept it). And then it would’ve more of ‘this proves DIS is not prime because the bridge looks like its actually futuristic and not when it was built during the Vietnam era.’

February 12, 2019 6:19 pm

ML31

But that is the can of worms you open when you show the Enterprise to begin with. Plus we saw a hallway AND Spock’s (gigantic) quarters. Yes, the show is called Discovery but it was that same show that decided to have the franchises most iconic starship show up. Of course people are going to feel cheated if they don’t do more with it. Showing the bridge will never please everyone but that is why it would have been better for the Enterprise to not show up at all. Perhaps it would have been better had Pike just intercepted them in a shuttle.

February 13, 2019 8:27 am

Tiger2

I agree with you fully. You’re right, they put themselves in a corner once they showed the Enterprise. They heightened expectations that people were going to see the ship but they also knew if they couldn’t deliver on those expectations then it would be even worse so this was the way to do it I guess. Show the Enterprise but leave the rest to our imagination.

And of course the ONE scene we saw inside of the ship of Burnham in the hallway walking into Spock’s quarters was the one image they showed us months ago now. I assumed there was going to be more but it feels like they literally did that just to get people excited we would see inside the ship. Well I guess we saw it lol.

But I guess it doesn’t mean we won’t see the inside at some point. I highly doubt even if Pike leaves by the end of the season they won’t show up again. At some point they can’t tease people forever if we do run into Pike again in the future.

February 13, 2019 7:03 pm

Tiger2

I came back to this thread because I found a new piece of info concerning the Enterprise bridge. But according to a video I watched from the guys at TrekYards (a Youtube Trek channel if you never seen it but very informative) they claim the Enterprise bridge WAS built this season and will be seen at the end of the season. I don’t know where they got their info from but they made it sound like it was a fact. I was pretty shocked but maybe they are on to something and we will see it after all? Not holding my breath yet but just thought I pass it on.

February 15, 2019 12:19 am

kmart

do you think maybe they were confused about the s31 ship bridge?

February 15, 2019 11:15 am

Tiger2

They made it clear it was the Enterprise and said the set was built at the end of the season which would naturally rule out the S31 ship. And also why they suggest we probably won’t see it until the end or maybe even the final episode. But people should take it with a grain of salt until something official comes along.

The way CBS All Access keeps announcing more Trek shows, I’m holding out for a Pike Enterprise show. Look, why not? We all love Mount as Pike, Number One looks cool, the uniforms are passable, let do it! Make a souped up version of the TOS sets! And let’s just forget that Spock quarters set we saw and just redo it.

February 12, 2019 6:46 pm

Tiger2

Oddly enough your last line kind of says why they probably shouldn’t do it. People are getting upset over the size of Spock’s quarters, imagine an entire ship that is just bigger and more advanced. I don’t get WHY the Kelvin movies and now Discovery that everything seems like it HAS to be so much bigger but for some reason they seem to want it. Everybody says they want a Pike show but the second it doesn’t match their crazy expectations of how its suppose to look I can feel the rage coming lol.

Now if they do it, I would definitely watch and I really like Pike but I don’t know if its a good idea to make an entire show around them knowing how fickle the fanbase is and Kurtzman might be thinking the same. That said, with all the goodwill that character is getting at least, I’m sure they are weighing it.

February 12, 2019 7:05 pm

kmart

The fact they changed course and embraced bringing Michelle Yeoh back makes me think the Pike thing is also going to be a serious consideration even if it hadn’t been planned for, but let’s see how the season plays out first. If they’re really going back to Talos (presumably a better reason for the death penalty clause being put in), maybe Pike is going to get a bit of Queequeg from MOBY and see his future fate (something that is vaguely hinted at in TWOK with Spock), and if so that could really change his style, possibly to the point folks wouldn’t want to watch him.

It’d be easy to work with Pike’s quarters from CAGE era though … the ‘tv’ in his quarters really is a TV, a hand-me-down from generations past, that he tinkers with to calm his mind — or that he keeps it hoping some ‘miracle worker’ will come along and get it operational. (Kind of a hands-on equivalent to the VIC-20 computer in Kirk’s apartment in TWOK, which replaced what apparently was a very cool design by Mike Minor in favor of placating the film’s star, who was a Commodore spokesperson.)

February 13, 2019 6:00 am

Tiger2

I can certainly imagine them thinking about it too. Especially knowing they were already considering a Section 31 show before Discovery even aired probably does suggest this could be another possibility they are thinking down the line. I kind of wonder if they regret announcing the Section 31 show so fast when it seems clear the fanbase are way more interested in a Pike show?

But I guess the issue with that is they don’t want it to be two ship based shows running at the same time in the same era and probably why there isn’t any talk about it yet. Rick Berman said the same thing when they made DS9, they didn’t want another ship based show to compete with TNG (and later Voyager) and wanted it to feel very different from each other. My guess is this is probably the same thinking. If it was in a different era like the Picard show would be would feel a little different at least.

I would love to see Pike’s quarters though. He should’ve brought that TV over to Discovery and put it in his Ready Room so everyone can gawk lol.

February 13, 2019 7:13 pm

VZX

I’d actually be ok with an increased size to the bridge as long as the basic lay-out is the same, sort of like the original 6 movies’ version of the bridge. But yeah, the size of the Disco and Kelvinverse bridges is just too darn big. However, I did like the Franklin bridge from Beyond. That was a good size.

February 13, 2019 12:27 pm

Tiger2

Based on every bridge on Discovery from the Shenzhou to the new Section 31 two story bridge, they only seem to be getting bigger. So I wouldn’t expect any less with the Enterprise. They would probably keep the layout similar in some fashion….or they may just do what they did with the Kelvin Enterprise and totally revamp it. It’s just hard to say BASED on what we seen from those movies and now Discovery. Neither has tried to keep much of the TOS aesthetic in any tangible way so far outside of the phasers and communicators.

February 13, 2019 7:20 pm

A34

It still might happen.

February 16, 2019 9:20 pm

Ryan

I could do without Section 31 and Georgio all together. It feels like someone is forcing the writers to shoehorn her into the show and this is how. I don’t think it adds any value.